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Ten Yori Mo, Hoshi Yori Mo

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Ten Yori Mo, Hoshi Yori Mo (As High as the Sky and the Stars) is a shoujo manga by Michiyo Akaishi, written in 1987 and published in Shueisha's Ciao magazine.

Mio Mizumori is an Ordinary High-School Student, a sweet short-haired girl who lives her life normally with her parents and her pet fish. The only abnormal things are how the water in the fish tank sometimes seems to react to her moods, and a certain dream where she meets a Long-Haired Pretty Boy...

But Mio is in for a rude awakening, when her apartment suddenly blows up and is engulfed by fire. Mio survives due to a strange fact: the fish tank water enveloped her all of a sudden and shielded her from the heat and fire. Her parents and neighbors aren't as lucky, so Mio is left alone and must go to live with her maternal relatives, the Shijou family — whose most notorious member is her handsome cousin, Tadaomi.

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The problems don't finish there, though: few days later, Mio is suddenly kidnapped and while trying to escape, she finds hersef cornered under a water tank. And then someone comes to her rescue: a long-haired man who sweeps in his hang-glider and helps her out, but doesn't give her his name. Later on, Mio meets Rei Narumiya, the beautiful School Idol... who looks a lot like the stranger who saved her, despite claiming not to be him. And later she finds out that the guy's name is actually Shou — as well as more secrets about him.

What's going on? What's up with Tadaomi, Shou and Rei? Also, what about the dreams that Mio keeps having, and how water seems to react to her...?

Battle Couple: Mio and Shou sorta become this trope towards the end, using their powers very much in tandem... but focusing less on fighting evil and more in protecting the city of Kamakura from being consumed by fire, an earthquake, and ultimately a tsunami. They succeed, but then they go the Together in Death way.

Big Fancy House: Both the Shijous and the Narumiyas own Western-styled mansions, though the Shijous have recently fallen on hard times.

Also, the Fujiwaras. Unlike the others, theirs is a normal Japanese complex.

Cynicism Catalyst: Subverted. The aloof Rei claims to have had a twin brother named Shou who died when they were kids. Thing is, "she" is Shou under a disguise, and is telling such things to Mio so she won't learn the truth.

Played straight with Miyabi's older brother, though.

Death of the Hypotenuse: How the love triangle is resolved. Also happens to Miyabi, who falls in love with Shou and dies saving him from a plane crash

Inverted by Mio. Once she is this close to stab Tadaomi to death when he's unconscious, but she can't bring herself to do so.

Disguised in Drag: To hide how Shou Narumiya was the member of the Narumiya clan who had wind powers, when he was almost killed by the Shijous as a kid the Narumiyas made it look like their son Shou died but they adopted a girl named "Rei" to replace him. Thus "Rei" is actually Shou under a female disguise.

Important Haircut: After Shou's dad is killed, Shou decides it's useless to keep hiding himself — so he cuts his blond hair and dyes it back to black, shredding his disguise.

The Dulcinea Effect: Shou saves Mio without pausing to ask who she is and why she's being chased. She lampshades it whe when Shou appears as she's watching the stars near a tall rooftop's edge and catches her, mistakenly believing she's about to jump; she then tells him "Thought so! You do appear like this!"

Dysfunctional Family: Tadaomi wears the pants in his family because of his powers, and his parents are terrified of him.

Heroic R.R.O.D.: Mio and Shou suffer of it in the end. Not helped by how Mio was bleeding to death when it happened.

How Do I Shot Web?: It seems to take Mio a short while to properly use her water powers. Even when she does manage to learn the basics, there are times when her emotions trigger them. i.e, once she got pretty upset at school, and the nearby water faucets starting working on their own.

Japanese Delinquents: Mio finds out very early on that Tadaomi is the head of a gang of these. In fact, the water tank incident was his idea: he wanted Mio to use the tank to defend herself, and likely have a breakdown over that.

Kill It with Fire: Tadaomi's solution to anything and anyone he doesn't like. It's... really not pretty. As proved by how he burns Rei/Shou's dad alive.

Kissing Cousins: Tadaomi's father and Mio's dead mother were siblings, so a Tadaomi/Mio match-up would be this. Tadaomi wants it badly, but Mio does not.

New Transfer Student: Mio attracts a lot of attention for both being new and for being related to School Idol Tadaomi. Subverted by Shou, who presents himself as one first (even wearing a different uniform) but the readers already know he's not. Not to mention he doesn't fool Tadaomi or Mio.

Past-Life Memories: Mio and Shou/Rei only remember things vaguely till the end, but Tadaomi has a much better memory (or so he claims).

Real Place Background: The last volume takes place in Kamakura, following the tradition of picking the city as setting for its beaches and fame as a touristic place. A Justified Trope since the Reincarnation Romance deal involves reincarnations of people who lived in the Kamakura Shogunate.

Reincarnation Romance: The Love Triangle actually is a repeat of another one that happened centuries ago. Tadaomi was a high-class nobleman (hinted to be Minamoto no Yoritomo aka the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate) Shou/Rei was a samurai (hinted to be Yoritomo's brother and rival Minamoto no Yoshitsune), and Mio was a princess (hinted to be Yoshitsune's mistress Lady Shizuka): former!Shou and former!Mio fell in love and tried to run away, former!Tadaomi tried to chase after them, and it got worse.

Relationship Sabotage: Tadaomi tries every method possible to make this happen. Also tried by Miyabi Fujiwara, a rich and naive young girl who falls in love with Shou, and whom Tadaomi manipulates so she can both get Shou away and deliver Mio to him.

Replacement Sibling: After the Narumiyas lost their son Shou in a fire, they adopted a girl named Rei to take his place. This is actually a front, and Rei is just Shou in disguise to protect him.

Took a Level in Badass: While Mio doesn't reach proper Action Girl status, her control over her powers does noticeably grow. In the third volume, among other things she puts down a whole building that's on fire via first telekinetically controlling the firemen's water hoses, then summoning enough rain to finish the job. In the seventh volume, when the car she and Miyabi's father are in plummets into the ocean, she manages to create a protective bubble to pull the car out of the ocean, saving Mr. Fujiwara and herself. And in the eighth (and last) volume she repeats the rain trick on a burning shrine and raises the nearby water to protect the people, before she and Shou die protecting everyone else.

To put it on perspective: Tadaomi is ultra powerful because he's been training in his pyrokinetic abilities for years, Shou controls his wind "magic" fairly well too though we're not sure of how long he's been working on them... but after Mio finds out that she has water powers, she manages to control the basics in few days and with next-to-none proper training.

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